Towards the end of this last volume there are some curious additional anecdotes. Those concerning the Russian ladies and gentlemen, whose neglect of personal cleanliness exposes them to be always infested with certain creeping vermin, will scarcely bear translation. Yet one extract may be chosen, as the dignity of the personage may serve to hide its general disgust. In St. Petersburg, or in Moscowitz, it is not uncommon to see hucksters draw a circle on a bench, where each places his louse in the centre. He whose little courser first passes from the centre to the circumference of the circle gains the prize of this odd Newmarket. Peter the Great used sometimes to play at this game in the alehouses, and other places which he loved to frequent incognito; and it is said that this celebrated prince was never at al oss to find in his hair as vigorous an animal as any competitor could produce.' The anecdotes of Russian slavery are singular; and some instances are produced of those petty mortifications, by which the empress Catharine degraded and distracted the mind of her successor, and thus prepared his future misfortunes.

Upon the whole, we have no doubt of the authenticity of the greater part of these curious Memoirs, and may safely recommend them to our readers as a rich fund of instruction and entertainment. The French now write with so much classical freedom, that, if a translation were attempted, some very naked passages could only appear as notes in the original language, or still more properly in a Latin translation.

ART. III.-Annales de Chymie. Tomes XXXVI et XXXVII.

Paris.

Annals of Chemistry. (Continued from Vol. XXXIII. p. 523.)

THE first number of the thirty-sixth volume commences in the ninth year of the republic, answering nearly to our 1801; but, in reality, published in September 1800. It is not peculiarly interesting, but contains continuations of Chaptal's Treatise on Wines, and of Losel's Art of making Glass. These Annals have now continued so long with unimpaired credit, that the collection is become very valuable; and it is no small ornament to the Critical Review, that it has attended their progressive publication with peculiar care. The more important articles are in general abridged; and the objects of those which do not admit of abridgment are constantly pointed out.

As the fortieth volume is now completed, we would strenuously recommend a full and accurate index.

After the continuation of M. Chaptal's memoir, we find a

• Description of a Support of Balances of all dimensions, adapted to render the experiments made with them more expeditious and convenient, without any diminution of their precision.' Artists have invented different supports, as weighing by the hand is extremely inconvenient; but these are adapted only for a single balance, and are very expensive. The present is of more universal use, and easily constructed; but the description depends on the plate, and is incapable of abridgment.

'Observations on the Constitution of different Kinds of Steel, particularly on the Steel obtained directly from the Kind of Iron called Natural Steel.' We have often found, in foreign memoirs, methods of tempering steel which render it equal to the English: but the successive volumes describe other methods; thus virtually disproving those of their predecessors. It appears. that the best natural steel is not only a combination of iron with carbone, but with manganese, in a twofold proportion of the carbone.

A

• Extract of a letter of M. Abilgaard, secretary of the society of Copenhagen, to M. Huzard, of the National Institute.' This extract contains some comparative experiments on the proportion of carbone in the arterial and venous blood of a horse. larger quantity of carbone occurred in the former. In the next article, M. Prieur claims the invention of parachutes,' and describes those of which he had formerly given an account to the Academy of Lyons.

A memoir on the Fabrication of Wedgwood's Pyrometrical Cylinders, by M. Guzeran.' If we mistake not, Mr. Wedgwood published an analysis of the clay he employed, and offered to supply every chemical philosopher gratuitously. It is not improper however to investigate analytically the best kind. We need not be minute; but may add, that, if we take clays containing .034 of alumine, and add as much pure silex as will make the composition equally refractory with those of Wedgwood, the retraction will be the same. The flint is about 0.043.

An Elementary Course of Pharmaceutical Natural History, by S. Morelot.' The abstract of this work does not prepossess us greatly in its favour. It is, in reality, a course of natural history, and not a very important one, in which pharmacy appears only to occur incidentally.

Analysis of a Stone called Gadolinite, with an Explanation. of some of the Properties of the new Earth which it contains, by M. Vauquelin.' "Of this new earth we have already spoken; but its properties have been imperfectly noticed. The gadolinite is of a black colour, and its powder of a greyish black. It breaks like glass, and its specific gravity is 4.0497, moving sensibly the magnetic needle. Exposed to the flame of the biowpipe, it cracks in little fragments, thrown out like sparks, with

a smart noise. The remainder is of a greyish white, and does not melt completely. Heated with borax, it melts, and communicates to the salt a yellow colour, bordering on violet. In the fire it loses .08; but the loss is really .011, if the quantity of oxygen which the iron absorbs be allowed for. It contains of the new earth called yttria .035; of flint and oxyd of iron each .025, with a little manganese and lime 3-more correctly, about 60 of yttria, 21 of flint, and 18 of iron. There is always a considerable loss, which arises from the yttria containing water, or the escape of carbonic acid gas. The particular properties of the yttria we cannot transcribe. It greatly resembles the glucine, but differs from it by being insoluble in pure fixed alkalis, and with some difficulty soluble in carbonate of ammonia. The sulphat of yttria also has little solubility; while the glucine is easily soluble in sulphuric acid. Yttria is precipitated from its solution by the oxalic acid and prussiat of potash, but the glucine is not. Its salts also are coloured; and it thus forms the connecting medium between earths and metallic oxyd. Thus, admitting the agustine, we have already ten earths; but a new one has appeared from America, called, on this account, Columbium. When the discovery is better ascertained, we shall introduce some description of this new star from the West. It is said to have been first detected by Mr. Hatchett; and it is with regret that we observe the first publication of it in a French journal. The columbium, with a large proportion of oxygen, is said to become an acid.

Analysis of the Mineral Waters of Tongres, by M. Payssé.' These waters are a chalybeate of no great powers, and contain about an equal proportion of carbonate of magnesia.

• A critical Examination of the Commentary published by Wiegleb, on the Change of Water into Gas, by Van Mons.' Wiegleb complains of unfairness in the conduct of the Dutch chemists, who contended that the tubes employed by him were permeable to the air, and that the gas proceeded from the atmosphere. Van Mons defends them with zeal, and seemingly with success. This commentary is continued in the two subsequent volumes.

Analysis of the Mellite, or Honey-Stone, by M. Vauquelin.' This mineral contains alumine and flint; but its acid is singular, for it greatly resembles the oxalic. The author, however, candidly confesses his doubts, from some subsequent experiments. There was certainly a large proportion of carbonic acid and a very small one of carbone: it is not however the oxalic acid, but apparently a new one.

Extract of a Letter from Professor Wurzer to Van Mons.' This relates to the supposed new alkali, the pneum, whose existence is very doubtful, and indeed generally disbelieved; for the supposed pneum is found to be refined borax.

Experiments on the Urine, by D. Louis Proust; translated from the Spanish. (Annales de Historia Naturale; March 1800, N° 3, p. 275.) This author endeavours to prove the existence of sulphur, carbonic acid, ammonia, carbonate of lime, the brick-coloured sediment, the acetous acid, and a resinous substance, in urine. In many of these points he is superseded by prior publications, though he contends for the priority of the discovery. On the subject of the brick-coloured sediment we perceive some new remarks. The resin, as he calls it, has. been described by Fourcroy; and we greatly mistake if his method of separating what he calls bile from the blood is not the same as that published many years since by an able chemist of Dublin, Mr. W. Higgins.

Geogonic and Chemical Reflexions on Volcanoes,' by J. J. Virey, of Val de Grace. This author gives a general, but a superficial account of volcanoes, and the causes of their eruptions. He perceives the agency of water, but not its extent, nor the consequences of its decomposition. On the whole, this is an elegant little essay; but we observe one ludicrous error in a quotation from the English. He quotes an ironical observation from the Bathos as the real design of sir Richard Black

more.

Berthollet's Inquiry into the Laws of Affinity' has been already published in English; and of Fourcroy's new chemical work we have given a sufficiently ample account. This is continued through several succeeding numbers.

The thirty-seventh volume contains a conclusion of Chaptal's treatise on Wines, which we must again hope will appear in a separate publication, as a proper supplement to the dry pedantic discussion of Baccius, and the more splendid but superficial account of Dr. Barry.

An Examination of the Experiments of M. Prevost, of Geneva, on the expansile Force of Odoriferous Emanations; and of Venturi, of Modena, on the Motions of Camphor on Water: by M. Carradori di Prato.' The article before us we cannot accurately understand, as that in which the author published his own system is not before us. The account he himself gives of it we shall translate.

I have proved (Annali di Chemica, &c. di Brugnatelli, vol. V.; et opusculi scelti di Milano, vol. XX.) that all fixed and volatile oils, as well as resins, and the volatile concrete oils, like camphor, move on water by the affinity which every oil, either fixed or volatile, has to the surface of the water, by which it is attracted, and constrained to extend over it, till the respective attractions of a determined surface are entirely saturated with it; and that there are oils and oily substances which have more affinity than others with this liquid.'

The author afterwards explains this doctrine by the distinction, that oils have much adhesion or attraction of surface with water, but no affinity of aggregation or union. He argues also with great force against the system of Prevost, that the motions are owing to the effluvia. We are not willing wholly to agree with M. Carradori in his doctrine, which, however, we suspect that we do not fully comprehend; but are equally inclined to oppose that of Prevost, since we find a polished needle, by a similar repulsion, swim on water, though specifically heavier. There is seemingly a peculiar state of the surface of each which produces the different effects.

"On the Combinations of Metals with Sulphur, by M.Vauquélin.' In this article the author speaks of the action of acids on metallic sulphurs, of the sulphuric acid, and of the sulphur of lead. In general it appears that sulphur has greater affinity with metals than with their oxyds; and this affinity usually diminishes with the proportion of oxygen which they absorb. In some instances they unite only with sulphur in their perfect state of metal. Thus, if we triturate some of the oxyds of lead with sulphur, a portion of the latter inflames, and the metal is reduced. Mercury, in a metallic state, does not intimately combine with sulphur, and the athiops mineral is rather a mixture than a combination; but when intimately united with sulphur, as in the cinnabar, the separation is peculiarly difficult. This however appears to be the abstract of a larger work; for there is a want of accuracy, rarely observed in this author's publications. In the æthiops mineral, for instance, there must be a real combination, since both the mercury and the sulphur lose their appropriate effects; and, in the cinnabar, it is by no means clear in what state he supposes the metal to be.

'An Essay on a new Electrometer, by M. Cadet.' A short and judicious account of the different electrometers is prefixed to the description of that recommended by the author. His object was to construct an electrometer equally applicable to conductors feebly electrified, and to great masses of the fluid accumulated in batteries, without allowing for any friction or any weight; to ascertain a fixed measure of the charge, which may be preserved after the operation, and which shows at all times the nature and the quantity of the electricity. These objects the instrument here described seems completely to fulfil; and the author obviates, very satisfactorily, some important objections which may be made to it.

Some miscellaneous communications, which we have anticipated in the present article, follow; and we need only notice the account of the crysolite, an aluminous fluat, which MM. Klaproth and Vauquelin have found to contain soda. We have little doubt, as we have formerly hinted, that soda is among the primitive substances.